Peripheral T Cell - NOS - pctl

That is great! You may already know all of the following but for those in a similar situation: As to transplants, Auto-transplants are harder going into but easier coming out of. First, the easy is the 'guarantee' of cell engraftment in the marrow - being that they are the same cells that were taken from your marrow. Allogeneic patients have no such assurance. The more difficult aspect is the myeloablation (marrow destruction) which eliminates all potential abnormal or cancerous cells in your marrow in preparation for the transplant. A plowing of the field, so to speak, before the seeds (hematopoietic stem cells) are planted.

To prepare your marrow for transplantation (and to hopefully eliminate all cancerous cells that you have), the chemotherapy administered may be as high as 10X-15X normal dosing. The thinking is that no cancer cells could survive such a saturation of treatment. However, this high-dose chemotherapy is given only for a very short duration and will not cause the cumulative side effects of standard chemotherapy. Think of it passing your hand over a candle, versus holding it over the candle. After engraftment of your own cells, recovery will generally go reasonably quickly. There is no Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD) associated with auto transplants, as you are receiving your own DNA and not someone else's. This is the best chance for a long-term remission and is the state of the at in T-Cell Lymphoma treatment.

This is the normative transplant preparation. T-Cell Lymphomas and their therapy is a rapidly changing world, so this may not be exactly what you will receive. Doctor should be willing to explain all of this in understandable language.

Excellent! thank you for the update!

Thanks once again for checking back in. Nothing but good news! You are well on your way and,although life is forever changed, it sounds like you are doing exceptionally well. All the best to you as you continue to recover.

Bear in mind that your immune system is stumbling around and does not yet know how to walk. As well, pathogens abound. I have had quite a few obvious nodes over the past 1-2 years and it was nothing - they were simply doing their job.

Well, I have had two relapses plus two additional cancers, I'm much older and I am still here. So take comfort where it may be found.

Completely normal. Focus on surviving! Forget the floor. Look ahead and look up! A scan too early would only subject you to even more ionizing radiation. My advice is to live life and enjoy. The alternative: Anxiety, which does nothing to add to your life.